critical

Critical theory

A. Frankfurt School – Institute for Social Research

1. First Marxist oriented research school in Europe.
2. Max Horkheimer - the school becomes more open to diverse intellectual currents.
3. Political events: defeat of working class movements, rise of fascism, degeneration of Russian revolution, urge revision of Marx’s analysis
4. Rise of anti-Semitism led to the school leaving Germany and relocating to Colombia University in N.Y. – re-established in Germany in 1953.
5. formation of critical theory: G.W. Hegel, Gyorgy Lukas, Max Hortheimer, Theordor Adorno -
   a. Hegel – immanent principles of contradication, changr and movement.
   b. Lukas – reification – value of object apart from the labor that creates it. – clash with Marxist-Leninist interpretations (dialectical materialism)
   c. Horkheimer – no absolute truth of reality. – society constinuously restructures itself.
    d. Adorno – critical social consciousness
6. a multi-disciplinary approach to understanding – inspired by the dialectical tradition of Hegel and Marx.

Relevancy

1. about the role of power in social relations.
2. a critique of society by uncovering distorting forms of consciousness or ways of thinking
3. break out of protected positions
4. criticisms of critical theory

B. Herbert Marcuse
   1. actively worked against Nazism in the OSS and taught at Columbia University.
   2. became the source of critiques and adopted by the global student-youth revolt of the 1960s.
   3. stressed the unconcluded nature of the dialectic.
   4. using Marxian concepts to overcome its limitations.
   5. society is material (economics) rather than philosophical (shared values, ideal - utopia)
   6. technical rationality – behavior in bureaucratic settings and a way of thinking – technology created affluence, middle class, creates false needs which integrate individuals into a social system organized around profit and exploitation.
   7. revolution necessary to free humans from the negative grip of capitalism.
   8. surplus repression – labor, restrictions on sexuality,

C. Jurgen Habermas: Rationalization and Communicative Action
1. relevance of sociology and social thought to political affairs -
a commitment to a social framework that ensures that fascism will not reappear
2. social forms: Primitive Traditional civilizations, Class societies, Modern civilizations, Capitalist Liberal ,Capitalist Organized, Capitalist, Postcapitalist, Postmodern
3. social evolution as a result of crises or contradictions
4. legitimacy - political order?s worthiness to be recognized
5. lifeworld - how evolutionary change is experienced by individuals - shared meanings
6. intersubjective projection (seeing the world through the eyes of others)
7. communicative action - society operates and evolves through the action of communicating.
8. rationalization

C. Douglas Kellner

   1. media – television – serve the interests of the powerful
   2. written work defend Marx’s concepts of use values and commodities.
   3. technocapitalism – capitalist society structured so that technical and scientific knowledge, etc. play a significant role in the process of production

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